


Salt Wife

by Lady_in_Red



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, One Shot, Post - A Dance With Dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 00:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4120180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_in_Red/pseuds/Lady_in_Red
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, Jaime and Brienne begin a new life at Casterly Rock in the shadow of the dragon queen's rule.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Salt Wife

The salt hits her first. It fills her nose, her mouth, achingly familiar. The sea birds come next, white wings wheeling overhead. Last is the ceaseless crashing of waves. 

Brienne leaps from her horse, runs toward the cliff’s edge, heedless of the voices shouting behind her. She is desperate for a glimpse of the sea, of home. The water breaks and foams against the rocks far below, vast and wild. 

This is not her sea, not her home. Brienne has no home, is the lady of a burnt-out husk. The Golden Company scoured her island clean, scattered her smallfolk like leaves on the wind. Brienne has nothing but her name and her memories.  

Brienne sinks to her knees. She knows the Narrow Sea: the impossibly blue Straits of Tarth, the white-flecked waves of Shipbreaker Bay, the muddy brown Blackwater. The waters below are as green as Jaime's eyes, the unfamiliar, endless Sunset Sea. 

His hand grasps her shoulder, an anchor, and she lets Jaime draw her back to her horse. She shadows him as they ride through the gates of Casterly Rock. 

The castellan's wife offers Brienne bread and salt when they reach the great hall. Another reminder that Casterly Rock is not her home. But Jaime brought her here anyway, trusting in the promises of the Queen’s Hand: safety within this fortress if nowhere else. 

The castle is Jaime’s prison, no matter what Lord Tyrion Lannister says. Jaime lives at the whim of a Queen reputed to order the slow, public deaths of men who've harmed her subjects. What would she do to the man who killed her father? How long will his imprisonment satisfy her?

Brienne is not a prisoner, although no one asked if she wanted to go with Jaime. She was silent, adrift inside her own head, mourning her father and her home when Jaime and his brother made their plans. By the time she found her voice again, they were halfway to the Rock, and Jaime’s squires had long since given up the pretense that Jaime did not sleep in her tent. 

Would the Queen try to use Brienne against him if she left him? Perhaps, but Brienne would not leave Jaime unless he asked her to, and she would not bring trouble to the only castle that might open its gates to the Kingslayer's whore. 

 

* * *

 

Salt in the air, salt on her skin. Brienne finally begins to feel at home. She spends hours in the practice yard, sparring with anyone who will fight her, working with the squires the knights have no time for.

Then Brienne overhears a pair of maids laughing as they clean her chambers, change her bedding. She stands frozen in the corridor while the girls dismiss her as Ser Jaime’s salt wife, the spoils of war, no better than a camp follower despite her noble blood. Brienne flees before they see her, prays for their sakes that Jaime never hears them. He is far less forgiving of slights against her honor. 

Honor is far from her mind when Jaime slips into her chambers late at night. He molds his body to hers, kisses her shoulder, the nape of her neck. Some nights they share nothing more than warmth and reassurance. Jaime never came to her bed until after his sister’s execution, after he was stripped of the white cloak. Until Brienne’s father died, they lay together only when need overcame her lingering sense of duty to Tarth. After, Jaime rarely slept in his own bed. 

They have never discussed marriage. The living symbol of the Queen’s mercy could just as easily demonstrate her wrath, and the Kingslayer’s wife would hardly be spared. Jaime slips once, introduces Brienne as his wife when Ser Daven visits. She avoids the feast that night, falls asleep and wakes alone. 

 

* * *

 

Jaime watches the Tullys with their children sometimes, when he thinks no one is watching. The mix of wistfulness and resignation makes Brienne ache. She is not opposed to the idea of children, as long as they are walking and talking and eager to pick up a sword. She has no idea what to do with a babe, so small and dependent. 

Not long after Lady Roslin delivers her second daughter, the maester warns Brienne that moon tea may lose efficacy with time, or simply leave her barren. Brienne is not sure which she fears more. He must speak to Jaime too, because the maids stop bringing her moon tea. Jaime spills his seed on the bedclothes instead of inside her. 

The things they do not say fill her chambers, fill the night.  

 

* * *

 

Winterfell is livelier than Brienne expected. Perhaps it is the influence of Lady Roslin and her daughters, freed from the confines of Casterly Rock for the first time in years. Brienne is surprised to find Lady Sansa so changed. She is more regal, less girlish, plagued with suitors now that her marriage has been annulled. 

Brienne sends Jaime a raven, as she’d promised, telling him of their safe arrival. She resists the urge to tell him she misses him. She finds it difficult to sleep without his warmth at her back, his arm heavy across her belly. Jaime has never regained his fearsome fighting skill, but he is good enough, and his clever mouth always has a taunt or jest to throw her off guard. The knights of Winterfell are poor substitutes when she spars with them. 

Two days before they are to return home, Lady Sansa offers Brienne a place at Winterfell. Brienne thinks about how Jaime slipped away the morning she left, unable or unwilling to say goodbye. 

She thinks about life without him.

 

* * *

  
Brienne has lost her king, her lady, her family, and her home. She refuses to lose Jaime too. 

The Queen may come for him someday. She will have to kill Brienne first.

Their party is met by the castellan and Ser Edmure when they return to the Rock. Brienne finds Jaime in a practice yard, sparring with a young squire she does not recognize. Jaime is bearded and greyer than she remembers. The instant Jaime sees her, he drops his blade, crosses the yard with purpose until he crushes Brienne to him. She tastes salt on his lips, his sweat or her tears, it matters not.

They talk, at last, of things left unsaid too long. 

They are wed before the sun sets. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Miss_M for reading this over.


End file.
